


My Heart is Pierced by Winter

by JQ (musicmillennia)



Series: Fathoms Below [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Actual Garbage, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Crack Treated Seriously, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Meet the Family, Mild Angst, Selkies, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 18:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6020473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicmillennia/pseuds/JQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[a sequel, of sorts, to There Is Nothing Can Console Me.]</p><p>Len meets his mother-in-law. It goes about as well as it sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Heart is Pierced by Winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nordstrom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nordstrom/gifts).



> I really don't know how to express gratitude properly. So, nordstr0m, have this instead :D
> 
> Yes this is a sequel, but the lyrics in this title come before its precedent. Another fic in this verse is going to have the same problem. WHOOPS
> 
> Also I am so sorry. Because this is on a whole new depth of trash.

Mostly, Lisa, Len, and Mick spend their days at sea together. Lately these excursions involve their Rogues. It's nice, actually; Lisa can't say she's been on too many family outings like those.

Still, that doesn't mean they still don't go on a few solitary trips here and there. Lenny asks Lisa to keep him company on his, but she keeps her distance anyway. Out there, with just the two of them, her brother sings loud and long, whether there are sailors to lure or not.

Now, he sings like that when Mick's around too. Lisa never thought she and her brother could have this much happiness.

This week though, Mick's gone off on his own. He's the only one who's not prone to doing so. Lisa can tell this worries Len. How?

"Lenny," she scolds, flicking his ear, "stop twitching!"

Len flexes his wings, willing them to settle again. They're on the deck, early afternoon sunshine blazing on their bare torsos. Because of Mick's absence, poor Lisa has been subjected to preening her brother. She used to do it all the time, but Lenny was never to jumpy.

"Missing your crazier half, boss?" Mardon calls from the beach house roof. He's just come back from a swim himself; from the look on Len's face, he might just get dunked back in.

Lisa snickers, gently combing a paricularly stubborn set of feathers. "Well he's not wrong, Lenny."

Wisely, Shawna keeps silent, folding her wings closer around herself. Lisa adores those beauties: a soft blue-grey along the backs, with soft white undersides dotted with tiny black spots. She's much rather preen  _those_ ; at least Shawna wouldn't fidget every time a somewhat bigger wave crashes against the shoreline.

"If you move one more time, I'll just have to rip your feathers out, dear brother," Lisa tells Len as sweetly as she can.

Len tries reading his book again. Lisa still doesn't think  _The Odessey_ 's the best choice here, but what can she do, tell him to pick up a gossip magazine? This provides a few peaceful minutes, leaving Lisa to get some work done.

Then a seal rides a wave to shore, and Lisa huffs as her brother's wings flap away from her. "Shawna dear! Is that a loose feather I see?"

Mick sheds his skin, throwing it over his shoulder as usual. Not as usual, however, he trudges to their house with hunched shoulders and burning eyes. Oo, something's happened.

Len shuts his book as soon as his mate reaches the steps. Mick motions for him to remain where he is, all but shoving his skin at him. Len catches it, peering at him.

"What?" Mick snaps gruffly, snatching a pair of shorts hanging over the railing. Once he's somewhat dressed, he throws his leg over the lounge chair and buries his fingers in Len's wings. Despite his clear anger, his touch makes Len give a long blink of pleasure.

"What's lit your match this time?" Len asks, scanning the waves as if the answer will suddenly appear.

Mick grumbles unintelligibly. He's scrutinized by everyone now.

Lisa, now very happy with Shawna's wings, interjects, "Someone steal your fish, baby?"

To her surprise, a derisive growl is shot her way. Len turns around for the front of his wings to be preened, eyes roving over Mick's smoldering expression. Mick never snaps at Lisa like that.

Stretching a wing when tapped, Len tilts his head and takes a guess: "Did your mother visit?"

He's never met Ferina Rory. According to Mick, she's as old as her name sounds, and from little hints he's dropped, he paints a picture Len has seen many times. Mother and son were close, had a falling out, from which their relationship never recovered. Sometimes mother will visit, but she only brings arguments and bad memories with her.

Mick confirms this with a roll of his shoulders. Len uses his other wing to shield him from the sun; his human eyes need to adjust, and Mick seems to appreciate the gesture, rough fingers taking slower runs through the siren's feathers.

"Why is she here?" Len asks, "I can't imagine this climate suits her polar tastes."

Mick grunts. "Somethin' about Mother's Day."

"Didn't know she was one for surface traditions."

"Yeah, well, she's turnin' another leaf."

Mick doesn't believe that. Len doesn't have to know Ferina to know he's right.

The siren shakes out his freshly preened wing while Mick turns to the other. "I was thinking of giving that bastard next door a cold awakening tonight."

Mick doesn't look at all interested. Len drapes the seal hide around his shoulders. He earns a glance.

"Lenny," Lisa says, "I'm sure our darling seal's hungry. Why don't you head inside and get him some tuna?"

Len puts on a smirk. "Excellent idea, sis."

Mick snorts a "fuck you" under his breath.

Mardon crows, "Awesome! I'm starving!"

Standing, Len replies, "Get your own tuna, Mardon. Mick."

Mick pushes himself up and follows, taking Len's book with him.

Lisa forces herself to finish Shawna's wings before chancing to head inside and check on him. Upon entering, she hears a familiar song flowing from upstairs.

She peeks into Len and Mick's room. Her brother's voice caresses the air, projected not directly at Mick but all around him so he's relaxed, not deeply affected. A trick Lisa wants to try on her own Mick sometime, all told.

But she digresses.

Len's wings block most of the picture, but Lisa can see her brother's bent back and the side of his thigh. Mick's legs sprawl from behind the makeshift curtain, his hide covering him like a blanket.

Lisa makes them tuna sandwiches and leaves them on the bedside table. Len's voice nearly stumbles when he sees them.

* * *

"No."

Lisa smiles. "Yes."

Mick glares at both irritating siblings. "No," he repeats.

Len smirks and takes flight.

"Lenny, you son of a bitch!" the siren dips towards the ocean. " _Snart_!"

Laughing, Lisa takes a running leap off Arrowhead Point. Mick yells after her too. In vain, of course.

A herd of selkies are hunting off a nearby shore. Lisa sings a vivacious aria, Len corkscrewing into a dive when he sees her enraptured target emerge from the crowd.

The selkie unleashes an undignified yelp as Len snatches her from her perch. She tries slipping out of her skin, but Lisa just catches her human body.

Len shouts over the wind, "Leonard Snart. You must be my mother-in-law."

* * *

Ferina Rory shrieks insults and struggles against her captors as best she can the entire flight back to the beach house. With her skin in Len's hands, however, she's afraid to try anything else.

Mick snatches his mother's skin from Len the instant the idiots land. Ferina snatches it from him, using it to cover her bare front.

Her human body has clearly not been used much. While her seal hide shows signs of age, on legs she looks no older than twenty-eight at most. She has Mick's strong jaw and fiery eyes, rich dark hair falling midway down her back in ringlets. Her lips, pursed in anger, are as rosy as her cheeks.

Basically, Ferina is the subject of far too many painters' wet dreams.

Mick steps in front of her. "Are you fucking kidding me, Snart?" he bellows.

Len crosses his arms, shrugging. "I don't see the problem, Mick. It  _is_ Mother's Day."

"Besides," Lisa adds, "isn't it time we met her? Family should get to know each other."

" _This_ is the creature you took as a mate?!"

Something in Mick's face shuts down cold. Len's entire body stiffens.

Ferina, meanwhile, storms around her son and jabs an accusing finger at both sirens. "What kind of twisted lure did you use on him?" the siblings raise an eyebrow in unison. "My son would never bind himself to--oh," her pretty face twists into a sneer, "you stole his skin, didn't you?"

Mick shoves himself between them. He hisses to Len, "I only told her I had a mate, Snart, nothin' else!"

Len's eyes narrow. "Not like you to like by ommision, Mick."

"Don't start that, Lenny. I didn't tell her about you because--"

And that's when Ferina lashes out.

Lisa gets slashed across the face. An inhuman roar bursts from Mick as she recoils in surprise, but it's nothing compared to the chilling screech Len unleashes. 

The siren's eyes turn into glowing irises with menacing vertical pupils, jaw stretching past ordinary limits to accomodate rows of shark teeth that abruptly escape from their sheaths. In an instant the creature has Ferina pinned, wings spread with murderous intent, talons poised to strike.

" _You don't touch her_ ," a voice that sounds like the mighty ocean herself commands.

Ferina chokes, quaking with fear. Unfortunately, Lisa comes to her rescue, throwing her arms around Len's neck and tugging.

"Brother mine," she sings, "you know I like to take my own revenge."

And Len backs off, letting himself he shoved at Mick. Mick, who glares at his mother and says, "I didn't tell her 'cause I got my impulse control from her."

Lisa hums. "Do you hate sirens, Mrs. Rory?"

This time, sh anticipates the attack, blocking easily and slamming Ferina back against the deck's unforgiving wood.

"Let's see," Lisa grins, tilting her head, "what does my kind like to do that everyone else can't stand? Oh! Did Mick's father run off with one of us? Hm, no?"

Ferina tries to go for her face again. Lisa ducks out of the way.

"Simple prejudice? Didn't think so. Unless..." Lisa's entire demeanor morphs into that of an excited child who's stumbled on something she's not supposed to know. "Oh, Mrs. Rory, you naughty seal."

Len, sufficiently calmed by Mick's tight grasp on his shoulder, asks what she means.

Mick answers for her, "She didn't disown me when I told 'er I was stayin' on the surface, Lenny. It was when she found out I was hangin' around a bunch of sirens."

"And?"

Ferina snaps, "Don't you dare answer, you bastard!"

Len's pupils thin. Mick forces him another two steps back, answering, "My dad was a siren. He left 'er when he found out what I was."

"And so you put the sins of the father onto your son's shoulders," Lisa concludes. "Now you've come back to, what, hope he's settled down with calves and a pretty selkie?"

"Here I thought we had daddy issues, sis," Len teases. Lisa grins at him, deliberately showing her undamaged cheek.

"Well I think this has been a productive family reunion," she says, "Mick, baby, what do you think?"

Mick scowls. "I think you're both morons who don't know how t'be told no."

"I'll take her back, then." a predator's smile sharpens Lisa's face. "Don't wait up, boys."

* * *

"You are never seeing her again," Mick reminds Len for the umpteenth time that night, shortly after Lisa returned with only a promise Ferina wasn't dead. "She's a bitch, but she's my mother."

Len hums, dipping his feet into the sea below. Their rocks have cooled under the moonlight, creating a near perfect spot. And a good vantage point.

"Duly noted, Mick."

"Better be, Lenny," Mick warns. "Now come on, sing me a song."

Len smirks, "No need to get hot-headed, Mick. There's still fifteen seconds until he's in position."

Mick smacks his wing for that pun.

When five seconds remain, he sits forward. Len silently takes to the air.

The siren lands on the pontoon railing. Holding out his hand, Len sings to his latest victim without words. Because it's been stuck in his head all day thanks to Lisa's insufferable humming this past week, Len chooses Davy Jones' theme.

Mick laughs as loudly as he dares. He films the encounter as Lisa instructed.

Their next door neighbor gets a very cold awakening.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
